Amid four homicides this week, Hartford residents concerned as police work to solve crimes, stem violence

HARTFORD, CT - 02.22.2019 - HARTFORD HOMICIDES - ?We?re better than this. The city of Hartford is better than this. Four homicides within a week is unacceptable,? says Hartford Police Lt. Paul Cicero about the recent homicides in Hartford. Post nublia phoebus translates to "After the clouds, the sun." Below the latin phrase is a tally of Hartford's five homicides in 2019. Cicero is in the Major Crimes Division at the Hartford Police Department. PATRICK RAYCRAFT | praycraft@courant.com (Patrick Raycraft / Hartford Courant)

Not far from the pieces of trash Damion Earlington picked up along the stretch of sidewalk outside his home on Main Street Friday morning, streaks of blood stained his neighbor’s walkway – a grim reminder of yet another killing in Hartford this week.

Next door to Earlington’s three-family home, police said 40-year-old Shawn Banks, another city resident, was stabbed Thursday night in what investigators said was a tumultuous disagreement with another man, identified as Mayceo Montford.

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A frustrated Earlington said he learned about the stabbing from his sister while he was working Thursday night.

“I bought my house years ago,” Earlington, a native of Hartford, said. “I wish my house was in West Hartford."

Since early Sunday, three men have been fatally shot in the city. On Thursday night, Banks was stabbed and died Friday morning at the hospital.

The wave of violence left a community uneasy and prompted a quick response by police. Throughout the week, officials said detectives worked around the clock, while patrol officers launched proactive attempts to deter further violent crimes.

“I wish it was somewhere else, but it is what it is," Earlington said as he looked up and down his block, marked with abandoned or burned buildings and vacant or deteriorating lots.

He was among those concerned about the recent surge of violence. Focused on his home and neighborhood, he said he has brought some of his issues to the city council, but it falls on “deaf ears.”

By Friday morning, investigators made their first arrest in the week’s killings by charging Montford with murder. He was ordered held on $1 million bond after appearing briefly before Hartford Superior Court Judge Laura F. Baldini.

Still in his clothes from Thursday night — a blue T-shirt and dark gray sweats, but no shoes — Montford sobbed deeply, tears filling his eyes as he looked at his family in the near vacant gallery as he shuffled his shackled feet into the courtroom while flanked by judicial marshals.

Once seated, he placed his head in his hands and let out cries as the prosecutor, Debra Collins, told Baldini: “It’s a strong case for the state given a written statement from an eye witness.”

HARTFORD, CT - 02.22.2019 - HARTFORD HOMICIDES - "I try to mind my business," says Damion Earlington, 41, who has owned a home on North Main Street in Hartford for more than fifteen years. Shaun Banks, the fourth homicide victim in the city this week and the fifth murder victim this year, lived next door to Earlington and had recently shoveled snow from his driveway. There have been five homicides in Hartford this year. PATRICK RAYCRAFT | praycraft@courant.com (Patrick Raycraft / Hartford Courant)

The witness, Elkie Crump, told officers that he was watching television about 9:30 p.m. when he heard yelling and screaming from the first floor of his building at 2327 Main St., according to a police report.

He went downstairs and heard more yelling before he pushed open the front door and saw Montford standing over Banks, the report said. He then told police that he saw Montford stab the man at least one time in the back with a knife six or seven inches long, according to arrest records.

In a brief interview with The Courant, Crump said he heard a “big commotion” next door, and was “very surprised" by what happened, describing the building that has been his home for eight years as typically quiet.

The violence usually skips his direct part of the block, Crump said, ushering forward and backward instead. He said those ends of Main Street tend to be worse. He said it was not great to again see the blood outside his home.

Not far up the street, L. Fitzgerald Lester, known to many as “G,” was meticulously clipping hair in his barber shop. This violence was nothing new, he said. He had not heard about the stabbing, but was not surprised something like that happened.

“There’s violence in the neighborhood. You’re accustomed to the violence,” Lester said as soft jazz played in the background. “Violence originates somewhere. We live in a violent society."

He went on to say that America is a violent country and what happens on Hartford streets is “just the lower echelon of violence” relied on by people who see it as a means of getting power, emulating what they see those in power doing.

While Cicero said that none of the four killings this week appear to be connected, some involved drugs.

Lester said drugs are a tool for some in the city to get into another economic circle. “They are peddling drugs and then they are getting into conflicts,” Lester said.

Amid this spate in violence, Cicero said that elements within the department, involving patrol officers and members of various units including the Violent Crime Unit and Street Crimes Unit, have been focusing on active areas within the city, drawn from a host of sources including ShotSpotter activation, information on past 911 calls and crimes and what they are hearing from informants or seeing on social media.

HARTFORD, CT - 02.22.2019 - HARTFORD HOMICIDES - "We have to investigate why these things really happen," says L. Fitzgerlad Lester II, at right, as he gives Derrick Seldon II, of Bloomfield, a haircut at "It's A G Thang" Barber & Salon on North Main Street in Hartford on Friday morning. Shaun Banks, the fourth homicide victim in the city this week and the fifth murder victim this year, lived close to Lester's barbershop. PATRICK RAYCRAFT | praycraft@courant.com (Patrick Raycraft / Hartford Courant)

“We attack aggressively the locations we deem as hot spots," Cicero said of the department’s response, noting that uniform patrols are working alongside plainclothes details.

Meanwhile, Crime Scene Division detectives have been jumping from scene to scene collecting evidence, and Major Crimes Division detectives across the department are bolstering the work of the homicide team that has been working since the first killing this week, Cicero said.

The first shooting happened about 1:45 a.m. Sunday outside Vibz Uptown, 3155 Main St. Jakari Lewis, 28, was killed, and another 28-year-old man was seriously wounded. A 29-year-old woman sustained a minor injury.

Shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, a resident noticed a body in a parking lot of an apartment building at 198 Woodland Dr. The man, Joseph Goiangos, 26, of Middletown, had been fatally shot in the chest, police said.

Late that afternoon, police responded to a shooting in the area of 249 New Britain Ave. in the city’s South End. Richard Kinoshita, 46, of Bristol, was driven to Hartford Hospital, where he died of a gunshot wound to the upper torso.

A short time later, another shooting victim surfaced in the area of Ashley and Atwood streets, next to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and miles away from the New Britain shooting scene. The man was conscious and alert, Cicero said. Investigators are trying to determine if the incident is connected to the New Britain Avenue shooting.

The most recent shooting happened about 4:20 a.m. Wednesday in front of 179-181 Brook St. in the city’s North End. A man sitting in his car was shot several times, Cicero said. He was in stable condition after surgery, officials said.

The response has stretched the department, but Cicero said Mayor Luke Bronin and Chief David Rosado have offered whatever is needed to address this violent streak.

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“They have given us every allocation we need, every resource we need,” Cicero said.